Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I know what you’re thinking: But wait, isn’t the version of this song on the album live?
Yes, it is, and that’s exactly the kind of head-screwery I’d expect from Texas two-piece Stone Machine Electric. Indeed, the version of “Free Thought” that appears on Dec. 2020’s just-cut-and-paste-it-because-you’ll-never-get-it-right-otherwise Desert Records long-player The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld (review here) is the same one that is being played in the video below, captured at the Freetown Boom Boom Room in Lafayette, Louisiana, shortly before live shows evaporated in the face of global pandemic — timing, as ever, is everything.
Accordingly, much as Stone Machine Electric blurred the line between a live and a studio album, they’re here doing the same to the line between live and official videos. Just like they’ve been blurring the lines between jams and songs, psychedelia and doom and jazz, and so on and so forth all throughout their tenure, now past the decade mark as it is. Some bands fit easy categorization. That’s a line of which Stone Machine Electric are solidly on the other side.
At nine minutes, “Free Thought” — presented in its entirety in the video — is the shortest track on The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld by a substantial margin. And if you haven’t had a chance to get acquainted with the record yet, it’s streaming in full below.
Have fun:
Stone Machine Electric, “Free Thought” official live video
Free Thought off the album The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld on Desert Records.
[Click play above to stream Stone Machine Electric’s The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld in its entirety. Album is out Dec. 4 on Desert Records.]
Texas-based duo Stone Machine Electric are not by any means the first to put together a fusion of jazz and psychedelia, but they do it with a deceptive intricacy of purpose. Over the last decade-plus, guitarist/sometimes-vocalist William “Dub” Irvin and drummer/sometimes-noisemaker Mark Kitchens have explored the outer reaches of heavy rock and managed to capture a heavy psychedelic nuance that is both expansive and weighted. Perhaps most of all on the cumbersomely-named The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld, which is the three-song follow-up to 2019’s Darkness Dimensions Disillusion (review here), the underrated two-piece lean toward their make-heavy-things-float sensibility.
Positioned longest to shortest with the 20-minute “Journey on the Nile” leading off as the longest cut (immediate points), followed by “At Crystal Lake” (15:36) and “Free Thought” (9:07) rounding out, the band’s maybe-fourth full-length — it depends on what you count as an album vs. an EP, etc. — the album finds them working in three separate contexts and recording situations as they remain united in their atmospheric purpose.
The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld is instrumental in its entirety and arguably the “jammiest” work Stone Machine Electric have done since 2014’s Garage Tape (review here), which preceded 2015’s The Amazing Terror EP (review here), which begat 2016’s ah-ha moment of self-discovery, Sollicitus es Veritatem (review here), which begat the 2017 live album, Vivere (review here), etc., but it stands in line with impulses Dub and Kitchens have followed since their 2013 self-titled debut (review here) and the prior 2010 demo Awash in Feedback (review here) in terms of finding their place within the material itself and, even if they’re working with an overarching plan, doing so in an engaging and unpredictable way.
Effects play a larger role here than they sometimes do, but the spontaneity that feeds into the overall vibe of the record — the improvised-sounding nature of some of its stretches — is easily worth the minimal buy-in the band ask on the part of the listener. That is, they hypnotize, and whatever level of self-indulgence is inherent to an offering like this, it’s easy to follow where one is lead.
The destination, incidentally, is ethereal. Though “Journey on the Nile” enters a chugging progression at around 16:30 and from there rides a post-C.O.C. “Albatross” riff with duly respectful roll and nod, the bulk of the track brims with lysergic ambience to a degree that by the time they get there, they’ve set such a mood for the remainder of the offering that even the most straightforward of shifts feels like one is stepping on soft wax. Recorded in May 2019 with Josh Block at Niles City Sound in Fort Worth, “Journey on the Nile” also gives the first hint of how the titles play a role in telling the story of the album. There are no lyrics, and yet each track seems to capture something different in the overall sphere of Stone Machine Electric‘s sound.
“Journey on the Nile” references both the river itself and the studio in which the piece was put to tape, so what one takes away from that is that Dub and Kitchens are looking to show a process of cascading along with the underlying currents of the music itself. They do precisely that in the song, whether a given change is planned or not. Accordingly, “At Crystal Lake” nods at Crystal Clear Sound in Dallas, where it was helmed in July 2018 by Wo Fat guitarist/vocalist and regular Stone Machine Electric producer Kent Stump, and also references Camp Crystal Lake from the original Friday the 13th movie.
It is especially poignant that Stump recorded “At Crystal Lake” (he also mastered the entire LP), since although Stone Machine Electric have worked under Wo Fat‘s influence throughout their tenure, it’s arguable that’s never been less the case than with the initial unfolding of the 15-minute track itself, the title of which would also seem to lean toward the cinematic atmosphere of the keys at its outset. Once again, a heavier guitar emerges as Kitchens and Dub move through the runtime, but they never lose that underlying line of melodic, almost whistling drone, and the effect is to make “At Crystal Lake” not only its own statement, but also a push farther-out than “Journey on the Nile” on stylistic terms, adding to the flow of the The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld on the whole.
What, then, about “Free Thought?” The last and briefest of the album’s inclusions was recorded in Feb. 2020 at Lafayette, Louisiana’s Freetown Boom Boom Room, which is a statement all on its own when it comes to the preservation of live music in a post-COVID world. But “Free Thought” refers both to the name of the locale and the spirit of the track itself, which is open in terms of structure and not quite as avant garde as one thinks of free-jazz as being, but decidedly unhindered in its readiness to go where it wants.
It goes toward a more driving push in a linear build and then spends its last few minutes in an at-first-mellow freakout — cymbal wash and guitar noise leading to a solo, a wild tempo pickup, then finally a chugging comedown, which Dub and Kitchens manifest with the kind of chemistry that only stems from artists able to have a genuine musical conversation. And that turns out to be what unites these three songs recorded over a span of three separate years in three separate settings: the conversation. It too is called out by the band, as one suspects that’s what The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies… is about, while …Within the Cosmic Netherworld is the molten soundscapes that each song manages to create in its own way.
It’s not surprising that Stone Machine Electric would be conscious of what they’re doing in terms of putting an album together, but the multifaceted nature of their intention is emblematic of what makes them so undervalued as artists. They jam, sure, and they do it well. But though its title is long enough to be over-the-top, The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld offers interpretive depth for those willing to dig into it as well as spacey nodders for those looking for a bit of zone-out mental escape.
Dub and Kitchens are able to serve varied purposes while staying united in their own mission, continuously avoiding predictability and forging a progressive creative identity through tone and rhythm alike. Tuning into their ‘frequencies’ can only highlight the strengths so readily on display here.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 13th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
I don’t even know how many times I’ve said this since 2009, but you know why I like Stone Machine Electric? Because I genuinely don’t know what’s coming next. Of how many bands is that true 11 years later? I’ve heard two of the three tracks on the upcoming album, cumbersomely titled The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld, and yeah, there’s a sense that William “Dub” Irvin and Mark “Derwooka” Kitchens are going to be jamming at this point — they certainly were on last year’s Darkness Dimensions Disillusion (review here), but as to what shape that’s going to take was still a mystery going into the new material.
“Journey on the Nile” tops 20 minutes and “At Crystal Lake…” is over 15, so Dub and Kitchens are plenty dug in here, but even between the two pieces there’s a decided shift in atmosphere. I’m keeping my fingers crossed to review before December comes, and there’s no audio from the record out yet, so I won’t spoil it more than I have, but the way I see it these guys remain way undervalued in their loyalty to their own creativity over genre or other concerns.
They’re a good fit for Desert Records, which has signed the band and sent along the following:
Stone Machine Electric – The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld
Record Label: Desert Records Release Date: 12/4/2020
Stone Machine Electric is a Texas-based stoner rock duo best known for crafting a dark and spacious brand of psychedelic jamming that they have dubbed Doom Jazz. Formed in the summer of 2009 by Mark Kitchens and William (Dub) Irvin, the duo began to unleash their Wo Fat and Earthless inspired sonic explorations upon the earth. Since their inception, the band has self-released a demo, an EP and four full lengths, the most recent of which, Darkness Dimensions Disillusion, came out on Sludgelord Records. On top of this they have a live record, Vivere, which was released with Off The Record Label.
“Be prepared to experience the COSMIC NETHERWORLD,” warns Desert Records’ Brad Frye. “I don’t know what strain those dudes are smoking in Texas, but Stone Machine Electric is about to drop a psychedelic juggernaut. Wait ’til you hear the song Journey on the Nile. Stoked to have these guys on board!”
SME have toured throughout the Lonestar State and even made it out to Arizona, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Along the way they have played alongside groups like Mothership, Wo Fat and Jucifer as well as having performed at a variety of Texas festivals including End Hip End It, Fuzzed Out Fest and Heavy Mash.
Tracks: 1: Journey on the Nile Recorded by Josh Block at Niles City Sound, Fort Worth, Texas on May 19, 2019 Mastered by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Sound, Dallas, Texas
2: At Crystal Lake… Recorded by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Sound, Dallas, Texas on July 28, 2018 Mastered by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Sound, Dallas, Texas
3: Free Thought Recorded live at Freetown Boom Boom Room, Lafayette, Louisiana on February 22, 2020 Mastered by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Sound, Dallas, Texas
Artwork: Front Cover and Layout: Joshua Mathus
Photography: Lynda Kitchens
Stone Machine Electric are: Dub – Guitar/Vocals Kitchens – Drums/Vocals/Keyboard
